Many ideas occurred to me while thinking about my subject for this column. Ultimately, I decided I had to write about Tiger Woods.

There can never be enough said about Tiger based on the interest and excitement he brings to golf. Consider what he accomplished in the most recent PGA Tour season alone. He contended in the Open and PGA championships and then he won the season-ending Tour Championship. That was his first victory in five years. Many people didn’t think he would compete decently again, let alone win. He had gone through personal problems, of which the world became aware, along with multiple injuries and back surgeries.

Tiger also had suffered from what appeared to be the chipping yips. He was consistent in claiming it was a physical and not a mental issue, and soon he was displaying a first-rate chipping game. It was instrumental in carrying him to his win at the Tour Championship. Ditto for his driving game. He found fairways. He was swinging in balance.

The number of NBC viewers for the last round of the Tour Championship went from 2.1 million in 2017 (when Woods wasn’t playing) to 7.184 million. Anybody watching saw how spectators at the East Lake Golf Club swarmed behind Woods as he walked up the final fairway to the green of the par-5 hole, with a two-shot lead in hand. Anybody watching saw how he hesitated for a split second before tapping in for par to win. Anybody watching could read the emotion on his face. He had closed out his 80th PGA Tour win and started the new season two behind Sam Snead’s all-time victory collection.

Tiger and his teammates went directly from Atlanta to the Ryder Cup in France. He said early in the week there that he hadn’t had time to digest what had transpired at East Lake, the importance of his win to golf interest worldwide, and, particularly, the huge uptick in viewers who tuned into the final round. After somebody mentioned the gigantic increase in viewers he did say that was something, considering that the Tour Championship was up against the juggernaut of NFL football that Sunday afternoon and early evening.

That was some week for Woods and the game at large. What can we look forward to from him in the new season? It’s all but impossible to predict anything accurately in golf when it comes to how a player will do. But it’s certain that the interest in Woods will be even more intense than ever, given that he has shown he can play frequently without being compromised by injury and given what he accomplished in the last season.

Woods played 18 official PGA Tour tournaments in 2018, and then the Ryder Cup. He was ranked 1,199th in the world a year before the Tour Championship. His win moved him to 13th. He was ranked 1,199th mostly because he had been playing so rarely while undergoing back surgeries and rehabbing. He didn’t have the chance to gain ranking points.

Tiger didn’t play at all in 2016 and in only one official tournament in 2017. He also had struggled frequently when he did play. He shot 82 in the second round of the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open and 85 in the third round of the Memorial Tournament a few months later. Such scores only fuelled the speculation that he was done.

His play in 2018 and his win in Atlanta makes all that seem long ago. The words “greatest comeback ever” in sports were heard after his win. He did come back a very long way. But I believe Tiger won’t consider his comeback complete until he has won his 15th major. There’s talk now that it’s still possible for him to tie and even overtake Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 majors. Nicklaus said after the Tour Championship that if Tiger remains healthy he could play another 10 years of majors — 40 all told. Could he win four or five? It’s possible, of course. He could also return to being World No. 1.

Nobody knows what will happen in the coming season. But it’s something that we’re even asking the questions and thinking Tiger might well come up with the answers he seeks. I can’t wait for his new season and for the 2019 Masters. You too, I’d bet.